Japan: JFTC clears Google's acquisition of Fitbit subject to proposed remedies

On 14 January 2021, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) cleared Google's acquisition of Fitbit. The acquisition was announced on 1 November 2019. The JFTC initiated a merger review in 2020, despite the merger not fulfilling the notification thresholds under the Anti-Monopoly Act (AMA). The JFTC conducted the review because the transaction was considered major and "would likely affect consumers in Japan". The acquisition was cleared since the JFTC concluded it would not substantially restrict competition considering the proposed behavioural remedies by the parties. These remedies included a strict separation of the parties' healthcare database from Google's database, as well as biannual reports to the JFTC, among others.